"Well development" includes those steps in completing a water well that aim to remove the finer materials from the acquifer, thereby cleaning out, opening up, or enlarging passages in the formations so that water can enter the well more freely.
Whether the well has been drilled in an unconsolidated acquifer or in a hard rock formation, the drilling inevitably reduces the porosity of the acquifer in the neighborhood of the drill hole, whether by compaction of normally granular materials, or by deposition of fine materials from a drilling fluid. Known methods for restoring and even increasing the porosity of the acquifer at the bottom of the well hole include overpumping, mechanical surging, and surging with air.
The present invention is a procedure for developing a drilled well by the use of compressed air in such a way as to cause turbulence and vertical currents to carry any particulate matter through the well casing itself, and to cause water flow into as well as from the acquifer.
Various advantages and features of novelty which characterize my invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the drawing which forms a further part hereof, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.